Pinoy Pride 26 results: Pagara brothers, Banal win by knockout

Brothers Jason and Albert Pagara both win by stoppage in the Pinoy Pride 26th edition at the full house Cebu City Waterfront Hotel & Casino, Barangay Lahug, Cebu City. AJ “Bazooka” Banal also wins an impressive second round knockout.

Cebu City – ALA Boxing’s Jason Pagara retains WBO International light welterweight title, stopping tough-as-nails opponent, Mario Meraz of Mexico in Round 4, for the Pinoy Pride 26 series dubbed “Fist of the Future”. Jason Pagara now improves his record to 34 wins, 21 by way of stoppage, with only two defeats. With the impressive win, Pagara, who currently ranks number 3 in the WBO, could be in line for the light welterweight title, any time soon.

Prior to the stoppage Pagara scored a knockdown in the opening round.

A slug-fest occurred early in Round 3, and Pagara was making the most out of the exchanges, landing crisp lefts and uppercuts.

In Round 4, Pagara landed clean five or more power left hooks to the head of Meraz. But to my surprise, Meraz was still standing. The Mexican challenger showed how big his heart is, standing in front of Pagara, absorbing left hooks after left hooks. Meraz, who now dropped his record to 20 wins, 16 by KO’s and 4 defeats, even hurt Pagara with a solid counter right hand.

However, the start of an end for Meraz came in the dying seconds in Round 4. Pagara landed, yet again, another left hook that brought down Meraz to the floor. Meraz got up immediately, but obviously hurt, although he beat the count. He answered positively when ask by referee Tapdasan if he wanted to continue and raise his hands twice. But Tapdasan waived it off and stopped the fight. Meraz protested!

For me, it seemed premature to stop the contest giving the fact that the guy stood up quickly and obviously not disoriented and with only a second left in the round.

Anyway, as what Abac Cordero, sports writer at the Philippine STAR, said on his tweet “I’m not the referee” to say this things, but I’m entitled to my opinion though.

Premature stoppage to me. But im not the referee. Tapdasan knows better

Here are the other Pinoy Pride 26 results:

Albert Pagara (21-0, 15 KO’s) remains undefeated by scoring knock down twice, and ultimately knocks out Hugo Partida (21-5-2, 15 KO’s) in the very first round. Pagara landed crisp textbook one-two’s to the head that made Partida two quick trips to the floor. A murderous left hook finishes Partida, and referee Bruce McTavish rightfully stops the contest 1:18 in Round 1.

AJ “Bazooka” Banal KO2 Defry Palulu

AJ Banal made a statement tonight knocking out his Indonesian opponent Defry Palulu in Round 2. A thudding left hand that seemed to be a liver-punch dropped Palulu down. The previously unbeaten Palulu now dropped to 10-1, 9 KO’s stayed down several minutes. The official time of the stoppage 2:29 in Round 2.

It was indeed another night of knockouts from the Filipino pugs that delight the crowd at the venue and the to all the fans watching the fight.